India Trip 2013 - Part 8 (Still in Jaisalmer)

The next day started a little somber for me as it was the last day of our Rajasthan trip and we were all going our separate ways early next day. I did not let this mood linger too long and we got ready to go to a nearby, ancient, abandoned village named Kuldhara. There are many reasons given for it being vacant but the most popular story is; rather than succumb to the lascivious demands of a local leader, the villagers abandoned the entire village overnight. They also put a curse on the village and no has settled there henceforth. After Kuldhara, the ladies dropped the menfolk and children back at Suryagarh and went back to Jaisalmer to shop for clothes. On their return we had lunch and headed out to the desert.

Wherefore art thou Juliet

Top of a dune

Here is common misconception about Rajasthan that I was guilty of as well; most of Rajasthan is made up of sand dunes outside of the few cities and oasis. On the contrary, there is water, if not plenty, enough to even cultivate at least one crop every year. Just as in the rest of India, it rains during monsoons, maybe not as much as in other parts of India and the onset of rains sets the stage for the cultivation to begin here as well. In fact, the real dune like desert is limited to very few places in Rajasthan most of them closer to the border with Pakistan. The most famous one is the Sam desert 40 Kms west of Jaisalmer. We had made a reservation for a short safari on a jeep like vehicle in the desert, followed by an hour or so long camel ride.

Camel Safari

The jeep ride was hair raising; one minute we were at the bottom of a dune, the wheels churning to climb at a steep incline and the next moment we are on top of a dune, with the vehicle at an incline of 45 degrees both down and sideways. At times, the ride was rough enough to loosen the teeth! We felt we were riding a roller coaster, with no safety device! It was a blast. After 45 minutes of up and down and sideways, we stopped to take some pictures and found our camels along with their three guides had arrived.

Slow trot

Only one adult and an optional child was allowed on top of a camel, which meant we had 6 camels.Although Maalini was a little scared, she trusted me enough to sit in front of me which was more than what she would do with her mom. The camel ride was a revelation in terms of how simple it looks when one is on the ground to how hard it really is when one is on top. The hardest parts of the ride was when the camel gets up and sits down. At those moments, one could take a toss over the neck of the camel if one is not holding tight to dear life! When the camel goes even a little faster than a walk the jolting is enough to knock ones breath out. Besides these camels were not equipped with stirrups and hence we found ourselves constantly straightening ourselves. After an hour of riding the camel, most of the team got off the camel. I then tried my hand at riding the camel at a brisker pace. It was a lot of fun although I found myself constantly falling just as the camel was rising with the resulting impact quite painful. The guide suggested holding on to the sides of the camel with my knees. I guess it is something one learns like riding a bike without falling off. I would highly recommend both these experiences to anyone coming this far west. The guides then brought us close to where our jeep would pick us for the return trip and left to enjoy the sun set over the dunes and on our trip. It was the most peaceful time with no man made sounds.

All except Navin, who went back to Jaisalmer to see a particular haveli, headed back to the hotel to get rid of the desert, to have an early dinner, and go to bed. We settled our accounts before calling it a night. The team that had been together was breaking up, with the three of us were going back to Jaipur in a hired taxi to pick up our passport and then go from there to Delhi. The rest were leaving for Jodhpur to catch a flight back to Bangalore. We all had an early morning start; we three wanted to reach New Delhi, nearly a 800 Kms drive, by the end of the day and the others wanted to reach Jodbpur in time to catch an early afternoon flight.

Good night; all good things come to an end.